Problems setting up secondary display with Projector

Hi there,

I have a really annoying issue. I have connected up my secondary display (nvidia gtx1080) to an A/V amp and projector. I have set my main monitor as primary. Whenever I turn off the A/V amp, my main monitor has no icons and becomes the secondary screen. Any programs I open do not show on screen because they are appearing off screen, but I can't see them because the projector is off. If I set the main pc monitor as primary, why is this changing when the A/V amp and projector are off?

I have tried messing with nvidia control panel and used extended mode and allsorts. I have even used 'Display Fusion' but still can't work this out what is happening. DF is quite confusing anyway. The only way to avoid this is to remove the HDMI lead at the back of the pc, but that's a pretty ridiculous thing to have to do.


Any help with what's happening would be appreciated!

Can you switch the numbers which are assigned to the two monitors? In other words, if the main monitor is labeled as #1, try labeling it as #2, or vice-versa. I'm not speaking of "primary" vs "extended", but rather the numbers that Windows assigns to them.

Hi, thanks for replying.

My main monitor is being labelled as '2' and my secondary output (A/V amp & Projector is labelled '1' by Nvidia. I have moved the main (primary) monitor to the left and Projector to the right side. I don't understand why Nvidia would label my main pc monitor with number 2. Should of been 1. Either way I don't think the numbers actually make any difference. The thing that's bothering me is that even though I have set the primary monitor, turning off the secondary output suddenly makes my main monitor go black suddenly and then display the screen from the secondary output (with no icons).

Honestly, what is the point of setting the monitor as primary when it's not obeying that setting. Never known anyone with dual monitors to have this issue. That's why it's so hard for me to find out what I need to do each time (windows reinstallation for example) to set it up again.

My monitors are (left to right) 3 - 1 - 2. When I first connected everything, the cursor would not move to the next monitor, but would move to some other monitor, as I moved the cursor from left to right. I had to move the wires around to fix it. I wish the assigned numbers were 1 - 2 - 3, but at least Windows is treating them correctly (left - middle - right).

So in answer to your last question, I don't know if Windows is treating your monitor as "extended" when you have set it as "primary"; but it sounds like it might be. You could connect the left monitor to the video port that Windows is treating as the left monitor port, and the same for the right. This would be an uncomplicated way to fix this.

Hello, I have partly got this fixed, but only because I had Displayfusion which I purchased via Steam and wanted to try and see if it could help where nvidia control panel was doing nothing for me.

Seems to be extended now. If I move the mouse off screen to the right on the primary, it seems to be going to secondary. I'm not sure if both Nvidia control panel is working alongside Displayfusion or DF is overriding control panel. I just didn't really want to mess with two programs to achieve this. TBH I really don't understand what I did to make it work. I just tinkered with it and kept shutting off my A/V amp until the primary display retained the icons.


Dropbox - Displayfusion9.1.jpg


Dropbox - nvidia control_panel.jpg


If anyone else might know a workaround then I would appreciate any help. This just seems so much messing about for something that should of been so simple :/